Crossborder travel and multidrugresistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) in Europe

The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow rapidly over the past fifteen years and the trend is expected to continue, making the health matters associated with migration a crucial public health challenges faced by governments and societies. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a paradigm of transmissible diseases that do not respect borders and poses a multifaceted and complex challenge on migrant health. The guiding principles for the health response are the respect of equity and human rights as well as the accurate analysis of epidemiological trends and determinants of TB in migrants. The action framework “Towards tuberculosis elimination: an action framework for low-incidence countries” includes regulations for cross border migration among the top eight interventions for TB elimination in low incidence countries. Political commitment is the essential requirement, and currently, the limiting factor, to draft regulations for cross-border collaboration, establish cross-border referral systems with contact tracing and information sharing. The e-platform TB Consilium hosted by European Respiratory Society in collaboration with World Health Organization – Euro is an example of a tool that can be used to exchange information for clinical management and surveillance.